The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump is the kind of person who would pay the $2500 bond to release the slasher from jail and later have him as a guest at the White House.

 

Fixed

 

Transcripts depict Trump as fickle, susceptible to flattery and prone to grudges
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 4:56 PM ET, Sat November 9, 2019

Transcripts depict Trump as fickle, susceptible to flattery and prone to grudges - CNNPolitics

excerpt:

"In the transcripts, which have dropped each day this week, Trump emerges as fickle, susceptible to flattery and prone to grudges.

"They tried to take me down," the President said of Ukraine during a now-scrutinized Oval Office meeting in May, venting it was Kiev that had attempted to damage him during the 2016 election -- a theory rooted in conspiracy that, despite efforts by his advisers to debunk, Trump ran with.

Far from acting as guides to his foreign policy, diplomats and senior officials working for him are shown struggling to ascertain his positions and bracing for groundbreaking policy shifts to come without warning. Professional diplomats -- some of whom still work in the administration -- emerge from the testimony appearing shell-shocked by what was happening in Washington, at least at the moments when they could actually learn what that was.

At others, they describe futile efforts -- including by watching Fox News -- to learn what Trump's associates were doing in the countries where they were posted, and after-the-fact realizations that they were being undercut by their own employer."

 

Malicious destruction of property is.

 

In Seeking to Join Suit Over Subpoena Power, Mulvaney Goes Up Against the President
By Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman
The New York Times
Nov. 9, 2019 at 4:39 pm Updated Nov. 9, 2019 at 5:08 pm

In Seeking to Join Suit Over Subpoena Power, Mulvaney Goes Up Against the President

excerpts:

"In effect, Mulvaney hopes the court will tell him whether to listen to his own boss, who wants him to remain silent, or to comply with a subpoena from the House, which wants his testimony. That put Mulvaney at odds with some other current White House and administration officials who had simply defied the House, citing the president’s order not to cooperate with what he called an illegitimate “witch hunt.”

Mulvaney did not explain why he chose a different course, but his decision focused renewed attention on his relationship with Trump; it has been increasingly strained as House Democrats prepare to open public hearings into whether the president should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.

“It’s symptomatic of a White House that is more dysfunctional than ever — except now it’s not just chaos, the long knives are coming out,” said Chris Whipple, the author of “The Gatekeepers,” a history of White House chiefs of staff. “Everybody, including the White House chief, seems to be lawyering up.”

Whipple could not think of any precedent for a chief of staff going to court rather than obey a president’s order. “Given that Mulvaney has been willing to do almost anything for Trump, it’s remarkable that he’s asking for a second opinion,” he said."


"Trump has grown increasingly sour on Mulvaney in recent months, according to White House insiders. The president has technically not even made Mulvaney his official chief of staff, leaving an “acting” modifier in front of the title for more than 10 months (another never-before)"

 

What 100 House GOP dropouts in Trump era means for impeachment
As public impeachment hearings begin, a look at the number of House Republicans who have left office since the start of the Trump administration.
Dante Chinni
November 10, 2019

How House GOP turnover affects impeachment

excerpt:

"A good number of changes in the Republican House, 36 of them, came through election defeats. But overall, the departures are being driven much more heavily by retirements and resignations. Half of the Republican House turnover has come via voluntary exit, 50 departures. And there was a lot of experience on that list.

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a 10-term veteran, bowed out on his own. And there were 10 other Republican members who had served at least four terms in the House, who retired and whose seats stayed Republican. That is, they were not in real danger of losing, they just walked away and let different people take the reins of the party in the House.

And there are likely more departures on the way. We are heading into the holidays and the new year, always a prime time for members to announce they are not seeking reelection."

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sen. Lindsey Graham: &quot;Trump told me, &#39;I didn&#39;t do no quid pro quo. I don&#39;t even speak Latin.&#39;&quot; <a href="The Hill on Twitter">pic.twitter.com/x008Cn8bhF</a></p>&mdash; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="The Hill on Twitter">November 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
trump can't speak english either.

 

I bet he claims executive privilege.

 

Police arrest man they say slashed 'Baby Trump’ balloon during Alabama-LSU game
Derek Hawkins and Cindy Boren
November 10, 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...d-baby-trump-balloon-during-alabama-lsu-game/

excerpt:

"According to the Tuscaloosa News, Hutchinson posted a Facebook Live video the before game in which he said he wanted to take down the Baby Trump float.

“I’m shaking, I’m so mad right now,” the man in the video said. “I’m fixing to pop this balloon, without a doubt. Stay tuned. This should be interesting.”"

 

Premeditated murder.

 

Personnel are spread thin in the Trump administration.

Mulvaney has been acting White House Chief of Staff for almost a year without confirmation. He's still Director of the Office of Management and Budget. His fate has been looking questionable lately.

Some are engaged in activities outside their official line of work. Sondland was supposed to be in charge of EU relations but ended up being assigned to Ukraine along with Giuliani and Rick Perry after Trump disposed of the professional U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Yovanovitch

Others aren't even acting officials and have no formal title, such as Trump's personal attorney and shadow agent Giuliani who pursues conspiracy-truther claims to avenge what Trump thinks was an attempt by Ukraine officials to wreck his 2016 election and tarnish what he perceives to be the beautiful reputation of Putin and Manafort.

Giuliani is susceptible to criminal investigations and charges. His activities sound like that of an unregistered U.S. foreign agent, a behavior that precipitated one of the charges filed against Manafort who was later convicted. On his misdialed phone call, Giuliani mentioned needing hundreds of thousands of dollars and was looking for a colleague who was visiting Turkey to obtain it.

Various Trump personnel are lawyering up in the midst of the impeachment hearings. Some lawyers are obtaining lawyers for themselves (MAGA: Making Attorneys Get Attorneys).

The brush with impeachment and criminal charges that Trump had with Mueller didn't faze him. The demise of his former and now convicted personal attorney, Cohen, didn't stop Trump from using the same clandestine approaches that he's now using with Giuliani.

The general atmosphere which has devolved to this point isn't expected to be any different during a second term of Trump.

 

Trump told Gordon Sondland to extort Ukraine. Now he claims to “hardly know” him.
Last month, Sondland was a "really good man" and a "great American." Now? "I hardly know the gentleman"
Igor Derysh
November 9, 2019 11:00AM (UTC)

After praising Sondland, Trump now claims to "hardly know" him

 

Here’s where all that U.S. foreign aid is going and why, in one chart
By Shawn Langlois
Published: Jan 15, 2019 11:03 p.m. ET

Here’s where all that U.S. foreign aid is going and why, in one chart


U.S. foreign aid chart image:

 

Manafort’s Ties With Russian Oligarch Total Up to $60 Million
October 15, 2017

October 15, 2017: Manafort’s Ties With Russian Oligarch Total Up to $60 Million - The Moscow Project

 

New Cracks in the Global Far Right?
It may be that, unlike what Europe saw in the 1930s, resistance to a long drift to the right is swelling.
Mark Potok
Oct 31, 2019

New Cracks in the Global Far Right?

excerpt:

"To be sure, the ethno-nationalist movement, or, if you prefer, the populist right-wing movement, hardly seems to have slowed. In countries like Hungary, Poland, Greece, Russia and any number of other places, authoritarian and illiberal regimes and leaders have been on the march for years now. Public opinion in many of these nations has swung increasingly against the postwar liberal consensus.

But it seems undeniable that some real pushback has materialized, especially in recent months. That may be a sign that civil society in these countries is more resilient than it has appeared in recent years — that the forces opposing right-wing nationalism are gaining, if not a lot, at least some new strength.

In the US, every day brings new revelations that seem to ensure that Trump will be impeached, even if the odds of him being convicted and removed from office still seem fairly low. In Great Britain, even though Johnson is still lionized by the pro-Brexit right, the prime minister still faces a steep uphill battle to getting a deal with the European Union that will satisfy his many critics — provided that his party wins the general election scheduled for December 12. In Israel, if Netanyhu’s political rival, Benny Gantz, has promised not to form a coalition with Likud if Netanyahu remains prime minister after being indicted. Prosecutors are moving toward indicting Netanyahu on corruption charges."

 

Trump rages about impeachment on Twitter, but he has Republicans to blame for the rules
Trump and his GOP defenders can continue their crusade against the procedures Democrats are using, but those procedures were authorized and utilized by Republicans first.
By Kurt Bardella, NBC News THINK contributor
Nov. 11, 2019, 4:49 AM EST

Opinion | Trump has the GOP to blame for the impeachment rules he hates so much

excerpt:

"Trump might label this an attack on “due process,” but his fight isn’t with Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Schiff, it’s with the Republican-led investigative committees who instituted this precedent during their investigations of President Bill Clinton’s administration in 1997 and 1998. That practice was extended in the 112th, 113th, 114th and 115th congresses.

For all Trump’s griping about lawyers, the House impeachment inquiry isn’t a trial at all. But the reason he won’t have a lawyer representing his interests in the hearings is because Republicans made a point to continue the procedure during the Benghazi investigation. During that investigation, Republican committee members approved rules specifically stipulating that “counsel … for agencies under investigation may not attend.”

We’ve seen this pattern of Trump and Republicans objecting to rules they created consistently throughout the impeachment investigation.

In recent weeks, House Republicans have extended a lot of energy and rhetoric railing against “closed-door depositions.” Yet, according to a report released by congressional investigative experts at Co-Equal, a group intended to help Congress remain a check on the executive branch, House Republicans conducted depositions of more than 140 administration officials during their impeachment inquiry of Clinton. While the Trump administration has tried to obstruct the current impeachment investigation by blocking witnesses from appearing for depositions, during the Benghazi inquiry alone, House Republicans took testimony from more than 60 career employees who served under President Barack Obama."

 

Trump’s bluster crashes into a barrage of impeachment facts
The president’s confident, solo style is set to collide with Democratic efforts to publicly expose his actions over Ukraine aid.
By NANCY COOK
11/11/2019 05:02 AM EST

Trump’s bluster crashes into a barrage of impeachment facts

excerpt:

"President Donald Trump has boasted, bullied, bragged, charmed and even lied his way through his first three years as America’s first Twitter president.

He prefers to issue major announcements himself over social media, whether policy moves or staff firings. He killed the daily White House briefing in lieu of the messy practice of fielding reporters’ shouted questions from the Oval Office or before his presidential helicopter. As Year Three of his presidency closes out, he has built his style of communicating around the pillars of political grievances, conspiracy theories and the targeting of perceived enemies. Most of all, he prefers to dictate and dominate the news cycles.

Now Trump faces the toughest test of his presidency, relying on himself as his own best messenger and strategist against a barrage of threatening evidence as lawmakers weigh throwing him out of office."

 

Reagan used the same approach. Comedian Johnny Carson once said that when Reagan happens to do an indoor press conference he should have a press aide stand next to him patting himself on the chest loudly to simulate helipcopter noises to help make Reagan feel at ease.

 

Eventually, the transcripts will show violent and functionally illiterate morons support him.